The Adventures of Drake & McTrowell

Perils in a Postulated Past

Chief Inspector Erasmus Drake of Scotland Yard has succeeded in tracking a most notorious collection of villains that have organized themselves into the League of Supremely Evil Revolutionaries (L.O.S.E.R.)! Their leader, Doc Synchronous, is the latest addition to Erasmus’ Logbook of Intriguing and Noteworthy Persons.

There are numerous reports from published newspapers in the American colonies attesting that Doc Synchronous is a snake oil salesman, a charlatan, and a dealer of weapons. In the wilds of the Americas, these crimes may be taken lightly, but not in London! Our man from Scotland Yard is most concerned that this “Doctor” leads an international organization of villainy. Check out the details and photos of Doc Synchronous in his Logbook entry.

Want to add your character to the Logbook? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your steampunk character.

Phineas Sinclair is known for being an airship smuggler, Confederate sympathizer, villainous rights supporter, horse thief, train robber, and Cthulhu cultist. That’s quite a Victorian rap sheet! And, for the first time, Chief Inspector Erasmus Drake has illustrative evidence of a crime in progress. One of Scotland Yard’s men doesn’t take this lightly. Check out all of Phineas’ details, with a photo showing a train robbery in progress, in his Logbook entry.

Want to add your character to the Logbook? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your steampunk character.

The Logbook of Intriguing and Noteworthy Persons continues to grow. Chief Inspector Erasmus Drake has added another couple that deserve close attention. Please don’t let their smiles fool you! Both of them, Oliver Von Bremen and Alva O'Dell, are known for their rampant gadgetry, conflagrations, and random transmogrifying magic. They are actually proud of this, and are willing to tell everyone about their exploits. More details can be obtained in their logbook entry.

Want to add your character to the Logbook? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your steampunk character.

Let’s ponder Gertrude (illustrated below), a cyborg of questionable allegiance. She’s an aethership concierge by occupation, and Erasmus has proof that her sideline is as a procurer of all things rare and precious. More details can be obtained on her logbook entry.

Our other entry is Professor Ambrosius, an evil boy-genius aspiring to join the L.O.S.E.R.s. He is currently under the tutelage of Doc Synchronous, who is a charlatan and purveyor of remedies and medicines (of questionable efficacy). I ask you gentlefolk, what is this world coming to?! As with the rest of the mischief-making lot, the Chief Inspector has more details regarding the lad in his logbook entry.

Want to add your character to the Logbook? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your steampunk character.

The latest entry is Alastar Hyde, another person photographed by Jerry Abuan at Gaslight Gathering 2. I have to mention (again) that Jerry is impressively omnipresent at almost all San Diego Steampunk events, snapping pictures. At Gaslight Gathering he took over 890 pictures! Well worth a look, I must say.

Alastar Hyde is a very interesting character, and definitely deserves to be in Chief Inspector Drake’s Logbook. The primary note regarding him is “Pleasant gentleman by day with a tendency towards sadistic pleasures after sunset.” Hmm.

Additional notes in the margin indicate “Alastar has traveled throughout the world and time, experiencing many adventures. He spent a significant amount of time in the Middle East while he was waiting for authorities in London to lose interest in certain incidents of violence and mayhem which may have been associated with his presence. During that time he traveled with a band of wandering musicians and performers, learning the ways of the Bedouin.” This is followed by a hand-drawn arrow down to a rare photo taken in some god-forsaken desert, showing Alastar himself standing in the back row of a motley band.

Want to add your character to the Logbook? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your character.

Katherine and I, dressed as our alter egos of McTrowell and Drake, attended Gaslight Gathering 2 with friends and had a great time. It was held the 11th through the 13th of May, and for us, it was wedged firmly within a very hectic month, making it a welcome break from the usual daily grind.

Jerry Abuan was the photographer for the Gathering, and has posted an excellent collection of his pics on his website (over 890 images). He has created a truly amazing gallery from the event, and it shows off his great eye for what makes an interesting shot. For example, take a gander at this.

Due to Jerry’s fine work, we have five photographs in Bludyanne’s web page, a few of which show off the finer details of her attire.

I’ll be adding more entries to the Logbook soon!

Want to add your character to the Logbook? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your character.

Last weekend, Drake and McTrowell made their way up to Long Beach, CA, and attended the Steampunk Symposium, which was held on the RMS Queen Mary. It was one of the most ambitious steampunk conventions they have taken part in. It lasting four days and was filled with presentations, movie shows, musical acts, magicians, dancers, fencing instruction, a blue-bearded pirate, a fabulous vendor room, and a raptor (birds) show. Sparky’s favorite band was there, Steam Powered Giraffe, and they rocked the house, as usual.

At the masquerade ball, the adventurous pair met up with Lady Amethyst and her mysterious gentleman admirer. They had a grand time, discussing past exploits and madcap heroic deeds. Lady Amethyst was kind enough to allow her image to be captured for inclusion into the Chief Inspector’s The Logbook of Intriguing and Noteworthy Persons. Luck would have it that the mysterious gentleman’s likeness was also recorded!

Sparky was thrilled to meet the noted crypto-zoologist. “I’ve read all of her published works!,” Sparky declared, “how wonderful it was to meet her!” View the new Logbook entry to acquire the particulars that Erasmus gathered about this couple.

Want to add your character to the Logbook? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your character.

One of the first people who volunteered to have their steampunk character be included in “The Logbook of Intriguing and Noteworthy Persons” was Dru Pagliassotti, the well-known author of An Agreement with Hell and Clockwork Heart (RT Book Reviews’ 2008 Winner: Best Small Press Contemporary Futuristic Novel, Named one of the 5 steampunk novels to read in Summer ’09). I met up with Dru while attending Gaslight Gathering, the San Diego steampunk convention, and was able to snap a photo of her character Sheriff Jack Webster. Since then, we’ve had a few email exchanges where Dru passed along a couple of more pictures for Jack’s web page. If you love great fiction, please consider picking up copies of Dru’s works. In the meantime, click on the link below and read about Sheriff Jack Webster!

Want to add your character? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your character.

When Katherine and I write the Adventures of Drake & McTrowell, we do what most writers do, we make stuff up. Every now and then, someone offers up a new character idea that’s too good to pass up. That was the case with the character Dr. Edmond Pogue, who was suggested to us by our good friend, fellow fencer, and steampunk enthusiast, Ed Pogue. Yeah, I know, we didn’t change the name very much to protect the innocent, but let’s be honest, there just weren’t any innocents around to protect.

Ed had a number of costumes for “Edmond,” but decided on this one for “The Logbook of Intriguing and Noteworthy Persons.” He also wore an overcoat, repurposed as a fancy lab coat, that was previously one of the costume pieces in the movie “Gangs of New York.” I guess its one of those odd little benefits of living in San Diego and being relatively close to Hollywood is that sometimes you find these things on sale.

As faithful readers know, Dr. Pogue is a critical part of the D&McT story line right now. Now, you no longer need to picture him in your head. Click on his link below and read all about him.

Want to add your character? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your character.

We, Drake & McTrowell, attended the “Steampunk: History Beyond Imagination” exhibit at the Muzeo in Anaheim, CA, a few weeks ago. It was a great exhibit, showing a number of steampunk sculptures and artifacts. In fact, an entire room was exclusively Phil Foglio’s original hand drawings from Girl Genius! Great fun.

While there, we were spotted by Sky Marshal Jonathan Baines “Jonny B.” Goode. After an email exchange, Jonathan noticed that we offered to post steampunk characters’ pictures and details in “The Logbook of Intriguing and Noteworthy Persons.” He jumped at the chance. Take a gander at his entry.

Want to add your character? Follow the directions on our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your character.

Don't you just hate it when someone takes a picture of your steampunk character, and just tosses it up on the web without mention of the character's name, background, and description of all of the cool detailing you painstakingly added to your attire? It's about time you got credit for all that hard work. That's where “The Logbook of Intriguing and Noteworthy Persons” comes in.

Katherine and I have added a new section to the Drake & McTrowell website specifically for steampunks to submit pictures and details of their characters. I have added three of them so far:

Want to add your character? Follow the directions at our Submitting and Terms of Use page. After it’s posted, your character will have its very own web page! A jolly good way to tell the world about your character.